Environmental Design Commons^™

Maximum Governance: Managerial Populism And Violent Infrastructures In The New India, Mila T. Samdub

Masters of Environmental Design Theses

Alongside rampant state violence, the systematic disenfranchisement of minorities and a draconian approach to dissent, since 2014 India has been the site of a relentless project of managerial competence. Projects like the Aadhaar biometric identity programme, the government’s embrace of performance indices, and the construction of a massive new capital in central Delhi – the case studies at the heart of this thesis – promise a new, transforming nation, characterised by Narendra Modi’s slogan “maximum governance, minimum government”. Dramatizing efficiency and transparency against the perceived inefficiency and corruption of the old India, such projects’ aesthetics allow a violent Hindu majoritarian …

Restorative Streetscapes: Promoting Positive Mental Health Outcomes Through Urban Landscape Design In Winooski, Vermont, Sean R. Fitzsimmons

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

The global health burden of mental health disorders is immense. The World Health Organization ranks depression as the single largest contributor to global disability; anxiety disorders alone rank sixth. One in four people will have a diagnosable mental illness in their lifetime and mental health conditions are increasing worldwide, rising 13% in the last decade. The economic implications are also immense, costing the global economy US $1 trillion each year. Mental health is more than the absence of disorders or disabilities, however. It is defined by the WHO as “a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or …

Mycological Renovations: How Saprophytic Fungi-Composite Materials Can Remodle Ff&E, Dillon Denig

Hospitality Design Graduate Capstones

The hospitality sector in Las Vegas particularly could do a better job at leading by example through more sustainable renovations and experiences. Today's travelers, restaurant patrons, hotel bookers and shoppers care about sustainability and sustainable practices make hospitality organizations stand out. In the ongoing climate crisis, research is being conducted assessing the viability of biomimetric materials which are responsibly sources, do not release harmful man-made toxins, and decompose through natural means. One of these organic materials further being researched as a likely future replacement of plastics is mycelium. The design method will follow growing various mycelium fixtures and furnishings following …

Sustainable Urban Planning: Turning The Concrete Jungle Into Green Buildings, Danielle Richardson

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper addresses the issue of greenhouse gas emissions – particularly those from buildings – within New York City and discusses ways to construct new sustainable buildings and retrofit existing buildings to both minimize greenhouse gas emissions as well as act as carbon sinks to absorb some of the emissions. Reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions is critical to NYC meeting its climate target goals, as detailed in the mayoral administrations’ PlaNYC and OneNYCenvironmental plans. This paper analyzes sustainable architecture and construction and presents various options and policies as to how to turn the city into a green city through …

Aquatic Architecture, Jonathan Bonaparte

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

For centuries, mankind has been building their architectural cities near or around water. It has its advantages such as transportation, convenience for the trade routes and water survival. As the earth gets hotter every year and the ice glaciers continues to melts, the ocean sea levels will continue to rise.

Assuming that the projected sea water levels for 2050 are correct, 95% of coastal cities around the world are at risk from rising sea levels and unpredictable storm surges. The coastal cities are going to have to adapt and change its way of thinking with the encroachment of the sea. …

Chattahoochee River Front: Creating A Public Space For The City Of Atlanta, Samantha Manders

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The city of Atlanta lacks public spaces. Atlanta is characterized by many high-rise buildings, and a bare urban fabric that is accessed by automobile-oriented roads rather than pedestrian streets. Dense city centers such as Buckhead, Midtown, and Downtown, lacks proper public places that support social cohesion. While the city is renowned for its green spaces and the tree canopy, much of the public space is dedicated as green parks rather than plazas as extension of the street network. When the development of Atlanta began, it was designed as a railroad city. This took the focus off its natural course of …

Intelligibility Of Medically Related Sentences In Quiet, Speech-Shaped Noise, And Hospital Noise, Tessa Bent, Melissa Baese-Berk, Erica E. Ryherd, Sidney Perry

Faculty Publications in Architectural Engineering

Noise in healthcare settings, such as hospitals, often exceeds levels recommended by health organizations. Although researchers and medical professionals have raised concerns about the effect of these noise levels on spoken communication, objective measures of behavioral intelligibility in hospital noise are lacking. Further, no studies of intelligibility in hospital noise used medically relevant terminology, which may differentially impact intelligibility compared to standard terminology in speech perception research and is essential for ensuring ecological validity. Here, intelligibility was measured using online testing for 69 young adult listeners in three listening conditions (i.e., quiet, speech-shaped noise, and hospital noise: 23 listeners per …

Impact_ An Exploration Of Urban Ecosystems, Sophia Teresa Spock

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

The Hot Springs Creekway & The Rediscovery Of The Water That Made Hot Springs Famous, Zane Colvin

Landscape Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Arkansas’s Hot Springs National Park was the first natural reservation in the United States and is the oldest park in the National Park System. In Hot Springs, 47 springs release almost a million gallons of potable 143° water every day - the problem is, almost all of this water is hidden from sight, funneled directly into an 1884-constructed tunnel underground, where no person (or other life) can experience it.

Hot Springs Creek should be daylighted and connected with the surrounding National Park, creating thermal 'pools' for public use, and restoring its banks to pre-settlement ecologically rich conditions. My plan to …

Cherokee Architectural Traditions: A Southeastern Environmental Design Precedent, Josie J. Tunnell

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Electrochromic Windows: Return On Investment Analysis, Thomas Michael Caprio

Construction Management

In recent years, sustainability in construction has become a topic of undeniable interest. With sustainability certifications becoming more prominent and desirable, members of the construction industry have begun to seek alternatives for standard systems to keep up with market trends. One of the main issues that the construction industry faces is accessibility of technology. While there are new products and technologies being released frequently, members of the construction industry lack knowledge on the specific details and implications of working with newer systems. One piece of technology that was recently introduced is electrochromic glass, or smart glass. Electrochromic windows analyze sunlight …

Plastic Bottles In Architecture: A How To Guide On Life-Cycle Through Reuse, Crystallyne Landram

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This booklet is a collection of 6 case studies that utilize reused plastic bottles significantly within their design. Prior to working with the case studies, much time was dedicated to research that justified the need for such a project. In-depth research on the environmental crisis, waste management trends, stewardship, sustainability, and ethics was conducted and recorded in the introduction to contextualize the need for an accessible how-to guide such as this one. Time was also given to establishing background information on bottles, reprocessing, and architecture to elaborate further on each piece of the content matter. It is curated as a …

Evaluation Of The Chinese Sponge City Program: The Resilient Transition Of Urban Stormwater Management, Wuhan, Chongqing, Zhenjiang, China, Case Studies, Jueminsi Wu

All Dissertations

The Sponge City Program (SCP) is a Chinese national-level policy initiative with the primary goal to ameliorate urban flooding created by rapid urbanization and climate change, and it incorporates both green and blue infrastructure strategies. China’s Sponge City construction guidelines (MOHURD, 2014) established the Volume Capture Ratio of Annual Rainfall (VCRa) as the SCP’s key performance index and a general target VCRa goal of 70% annual rainfall was set for all pilot Sponge Cities (General Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 2015). Yet few studies have been conducted to assess the SCP’s obtainability of the …

Cladding By Another Name: A Comparative Analysis Of The Environmental And Economic Costs Of Traditional Wood Clapboards, Composite Fiber-Cement Siding, And Vinyl Siding, Nicole Larochelle

All Theses

Using the tools provides by the scientific community, namely the products of lifecycle cost assessments (LCA) – which are synthesized in environmental product declarations (EPD) – and life cycle cost assessments (LCCA), the overall environmental and economic impacts of historic, traditional, and simulated materials are established and compared. This informs the historic preservation community of the quantifiable sustainability of historic materials in relation to alternatives. Through these two different methods of environmental and economic life cycle costing, this research demonstrates that retaining in-situ siding incurs the least impact on the environment and is the second most economic option. While the …

It’S Art About Water Treatment! An Interview With Mallory Chaput, The Artist Inspiring Future Water Leaders-One Artwork At A Time, Swati Hegde

wH2O: The Journal of Gender and Water

This article throws a spotlight on Mallory Chaput, an artist inspiring future water leaders to take up water careers. Through her coloring pages, paintings, and comics about the water treatment, Mallory is helping children re-imagine the water sector. Originally a landscaper, Mallory developed a profound interest in water and wastewater treatment and learned about it by visiting plants, talking to professionals, and studying engineering books. This article is a transcript of an interview with Mallory, featuring her background, her imaginative creations and her future goals.

Where There Are No Sewers: The Toilet Cleaners Of Lucknow, Sharada Prasad, Isha Ray

wH2O: The Journal of Gender and Water

Enormous progress has been made in the global effort to provide safe and affordable toilets for the world’s poorest citizens since World Toilet Day was first declared in 2001. Significant strides have been made in “reinventing” toilet designs for low-income, water-short, un-sewered urban zones; celebrities such as Bill Gates and Matt Damon have brought this once-taboo topic into the open; and the Prime Minister of India – the country with the highest number of people still practicing open defecation – has publicly declared that his country needs toilets over temples.

Well over 2 billion people today lack access to basic …

El Agua Es Oro: A Human Centered Solution For The City Of Cochabamba, Bolivia, Natalia Mendoza, Camilia Olmedo

wH2O: The Journal of Gender and Water

The purpose of El Agua Es Oro (The Water is Gold) is to satisfy social needs, specifically for women living in peri-urban areas, with a more advanced efficiency. El Agua Es Oro creates an added value for people’s well-being by maximizing socio-environmental context and not just focusing on for-profit economics. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy to generate economic resources to sustain the impact that the organization seeks to achieve. El Agua Es Oro is a social enterprise based on the application of social innovation with the methodology and tools of a people-centered design, focusing on teenage girls and women. The foundations …

Climate Change, Differential Impacts On Women And Gender Mainstreaming: A Case Study Of East Rapti Watershed, Nepal, Anupama Ray

wH2O: The Journal of Gender and Water

Women and water share a great deal of nexus in several ways. However, women have still minimal control over the management of water resources, making them more vulnerable to climate change. This paper assesses how climate change impacts differently across different women groups using an intersectionality lens, thereby exploring the situation of gender mainstreaming in water sector in three communities, namely, Karaiya, Basauli, and Dadagaun in Khairahani Municipality located in the East Rapti watershed, Nepal. In this perception- based study, we conducted three key informant interviews and household interviews with 45 women of different castes, ages, communities, education levels, and …

Gender In The Water Industry One Man Of Transgender Experience’S Story, Ari Copeland

wH2O: The Journal of Gender and Water

is a complex topic Most people often confuse gender and sex; Most folks don’t realize that there are at least 57 genders and gender is a spectrum Some people within our workplace and the water industry don’t identify as a man or a woman, and/or their gender is more fluid (gender-expansive. In our day-to-day interactions with others, we often assume someone’s gender based on their appearance, mannerisms, and other social cues that vary depending on the culture Additionally, assuming everyone fits into the gender binary (just men and women is often-times a barrier to being inclusive and making people feel …

Exploring Sustainable Degrowth-Based Adaptation To Climate Change-Aggravated Water Insecurity In Parts Of Rural India: A Gender Relations Approach, Nairita Roy Chaudhuri

wH2O: The Journal of Gender and Water

This article reviews the theoretical concept of ‘sustainable adaptation’ to climate change and water scarcity using a gender-relations approach by answering the following questions: i) What is a sustainable adaptation to climate change? ii) Based on a literature review, how does gender interact with climate change adaptation to water scarcity and droughts in rural India? (iii) How do the concepts of sustainable adaptation, degrowth, and gender relations interact on the ground, pertaining to water justice?

The paper argues that climate change adaptation and development goals can harmonize only if they rectify root causes of vulnerabilities. For adaptation actions to yield …